Lodi extends pot ban

LODI - A 45-day ban on outdoor medical marijuana cultivation within Lodi city limits has been extended for 10 months and 15 days.

Keith Reid

LODI - A 45-day ban on outdoor medical marijuana cultivation within Lodi city limits has been extended for 10 months and 15 days.

The Lodi City Council on Wednesday night granted a request by the City Attorney's Office to extend its 45-day ban, which was approved Nov. 7, with hopes that an ordinance that will govern how and where pot can be grown by licensed medical marijuana patients.

The temporary ban means patients cannot grow marijuana outdoors, or indoors if the plants can be smelled beyond a grower's property line.

The council's decision came with some protest. South Lodi resident Joshua Dougherty, who grows at his home, told the council he is often visited by police. He urged the city to be expedient in its process of allowing marijuana cultivation.

"You guys are mistreating medical marijuana patients" during the ban, he said.

Lodi does not have any laws in place regarding how medical marijuana can be grown. The police will respond to complaints, but unless a grower violates other city code violations or state laws, they are allowed to grow inside or outside. Residential and commercial properties are not prohibited from growing, either.

Cultivation had not been seen as a major problem, at least not in the council's eyes, until October, when a south Lodi woman complained that her neighbor's marijuana plants brought on a "dead skunk" smell that made opening her windows or doors unbearable.

That grower is Dougherty, who said he uses the drug to relieve pain caused by major abdominal and intestinal diseases.

Dougherty said his neighbors never complained to him, and he has purchased a greenhouse and filtration system that will diminish the odor.

Schwabauer told Dougherty that as long as his plants cannot be smelled over his property line, he would consider the greenhouse to be indoors.

City Councilwoman JoAnne Mounce suggested the city also consider reducing electrical rates for medical marijuana growers during the moratorium. Patients complain that energy costs are very high to grow indoors.

Schwabauer said he would research the idea, but that he suspects subsidizing medical marijuana cultivation - which is illegal at the federal level - would draw the ire of the Attorney General's Office.

East Lodi resident Joe Ventura said he's in support of the medical marijuana moratorium because he sees drug use leading to crime in his neighborhood. He said he knows people who use medical marijuana to "come down" off of harder drugs.

With the council's unanimous approval of the extended moratorium, Mayor Alan Nakanishi said he looks forward to being presented with a variety of ordinance options in the coming months.